Letter # 477 September 23, 1944

New Guinea
Saturday eve
Sept. 23, 1944
My Sweetheart;
Got two more letters from you today. Sept 11 & 12.  That's two more to catch up on now.  I'm going to start right in on this pile of them now.  Sept 3rd comes first.  You devil.  Saying you'll see what you can do about sending me a picture of you and all the time you have one on the way and never peep about it.  You must have learned self control.  The Babe I used to know would never have been able to keep a surprise that long.  It was sweet of you to send it and I don't mind the teasing a bit.  Putting your hair up and all just to have your picture taken for me.  No dead pan in this one either.  You're really putting out.  I'd sure like to plant a few good solid kisses on those smiling lips and then a lot more juicy ones.  Would you tell me to close my mouth like you used to do? Remember?  Don't know why but I'm betting you wouldn't say a word, but would take and return.  How about it?  Gosh, honey, I'm tingling just thinking about it.  Did you know you're very beautiful?  You are.  This picture proves it.  I love you.
I can see you really are sold on being a family woman.  After making dream plans of all the places you want to go, you discard them all in favor of staying home and raising a little "it".  Seeing I can't call it Velma I'll dub it "it".  Not having much of a preference for names I'll let you furnish the suggestions.  I always wanted to go traveling too but after all this I'm ready to stay in our own back yard and learn to be Pop if it's so willed.
As for being like your folks and doing our going after the family is grown, I don't know.  We didn't get a very early start and aren't going to be so young by that time.  Want me to send a test tube so we can get a start right away?
Now you're even raking the gravel back in the drive and worked so hard you got a blister.  Gosh, honey, you're really becoming more than a wife.  You're surely doing your best to keep things going until I get home again.  I'm proud of you.  You're more than perfect.  I love you so much.  I know it isn't necessary to say this but I will anyhow.  If the drive looks like it needs any more stone, be sure and get it put on before spring.  No use getting stuck and causing Art any more trouble.
I sure like that.  You hate insects around you and then add, you don't mean me.  You can call me an insect or anything else but don't ever say you don't want me around you or so help me I'll stay over here and get me an Aussie red head.  They tell me the Aussie girls go for the Yanks 'cause they aren't as reserved and, as we say, slow, as their own men are.  So there too.  I saw an Australian red headed nurse a while back and she sure looked pretty good.  Maybe I wouldn't even want to come home.
It's been thundering and lightening for the last hour or so and sure has the feel of a big rain on the way. A thunderstorm is unusual down here.  Maybe I'll get a chance to try out the curtains I put on some time back.  It's starting to sprinkle now.
The victory garden is coming along in great shape.  If we hadn't had to wait for seeds to get over here we'd have some produce to eat now.  Things grow much faster here than at home.  Tomatoes are big, healthy plants and have flowers and some green ones already.  Did I say it was sprinkling?  It's pouring.  
My storm curtains are doing a good job.  The lights aren't even blowing very much.  We also finished putting a wood floor in our tent this afternoon so we're really getting fixed up.  Get it all in shape and then take off, I expect.  Things are always damp down here anyhow so if the tent leaks a bit it makes no difference.  I can even sleep in a puddle of water anymore.  I did one night on the trail and never wakened enough to realize it until morning.
Honey, I wasn't telling a tale about the June bug.  That's surely not the name for it but I can't describe it any better.  They really are at least three inches long.  I know it sounds like a creation at a liar's club but it isn't .  As I've said this is a bug paradise and they really grow big.  I've seen thousand legged worms that look like a greatly magnified edition of our own.  Some are nearly a foot long.  Most of the flies are like the big blue bottle ones at home.  Few small ones.  The little snails we find in the woods, well, down here, the shells are as much as three inches across.  Some butterflies are so big they look like a robin in flight.  I saw a lot of the most beautiful blue ones.  Captain Spencer says it is the "Blue Emperor" and would be worth $50.00 in the states.  I tried to catch one but they usually fly high and seldom light.  I wasn't after the money.  I just wanted one.  Really beautiful.  Ants come in all sizes from ones so small they almost look like a crab, to some big black ones over an inch long.  When we came back to our base camp after being away for the trip one of the boys in my squad found an ant nest in his extra pair of shoes.  They were these big fellows and their eggs were nearly the size of a quinine capsule.  The grubs the natives eat are almost like a shrimp.  An inch thick and three to four inches long.
Unusual growth doesn't only apply to insects either.  There is a variety of pigeon here that weighs as much as fifteen pounds.  There is also a flightless bird, the Cassowary [I don't think that is spelled right]
that is similar to an ostrich but only about four feet tall that can kick hard enough to break a man's leg. Lizards from one to two feet long, snakes of the python variety as long as 32 feet, rats two feet long, bats or flying foxes with a four foot wing spread.
The vegetation doesn't take a back seat either.  Trees are all big and tall.  I'd guess a lot of them at well over a hundred feet.  Vines so long they go over the tops of several trees and may be as much as a foot thick at the root.  The oranges grow on trees as big as our oak in front of the house and look like grapefruit.  Green skinned when ripe.  Bananas with more than a hundred on a bunch and some of them a foot long.  The banana are anywhere from ten to thirty feet tall and have wide flat leaves as long as ten feet.  Make excellent roofing for temporary shelters.  You can check any of these statements and I think you'll find them nearly correct.
Strange as it may seem I could tell some "tall" tales but I'll leave that until I get home.
I sure got sidetracked there didn't I?  I hope all the statistics didn't bore you.  Now I'll get on with the letters.
I guess I told you that I found out I don't want to raise a beard even over here.  It wouldn't scratch you much after it grows out but if I were you I'd sure hate to be smooched by a mass of hair like that.  It was very annoying.
Gee, honey, you make me feel flattered by telling me you were jealous about me kissing someone else first so you tried to act like you didn't like to have me kiss you.  Huh! Whiskery! You devil. Makes me feel good to know you were a bit hurt.  Didn't think I ever had a girl jealous about me up to that time.  If you'd have told me that then I wouldn't have been so slow trying it again.  I liked it and wanted to bad enough but didn't think you wanted me to.  You see, even then, I wanted to please you and have you like me.  When your birthday came around I couldn't hold out any longer.  It may surprise you to know I had my mind all made up to try it again no matter what the circumstances when I came out that night.  You may remember how uneasy I was and how we sat and talked.  I fidgeted until I finally worked up the nerve to carry out my plans.  I lost my nerve as soon as I kissed you and took off.  I liked it so much and hoped you wouldn't kick me out next time I came around.  You didn't.  Gosh, sweetheart, I love you so much.
You can bet I remember the night out in the yard where the cistern now is, while we were building the house, and also the time upstairs.  I'll never forget a one of those firsts.  I also remember another time before we went to Met. Parks with Gus and Vi.  You said never again 'cause you were all worn out.  By the way, the upstairs time was after Sept 8 by about a week and four or five days.  Remember you waited until we got home and then had bad days.  That was the first good day and, until you came to Ky. held the record.  Know the score then and now?  I do.
You can take a box of Duz [?] to bed with you but I don't think it'll be as satisfactory as another package I can think of that will really does and does some more.
You seem to like the ring so much it encourages me to work on some more projects if I can find the time.  I like to do things for you.  You always seem to appreciate anything so much.  You're sweet and I love you and miss you so darn much.  I need you to keep me thinking I'm worth quite a bit.  You'll have me conceited pretty soon if you don't watch out.
Honey,  I like this big stationery.  It does take a lot to fill them but I don't get interrupted by changing sheets very often.  Did you ever, out of curiosity, count the words in a letter on this paper?  It's over a thousand.  A thousand word essay in school seemed a whole dictionary but these don't seem to be any work at all.  Takes a little time but it's a labor of love and time well spent.
Don't get spoiled, honey, by these four page ones.  I'm trying to make up for the two weeks I missed and will probably go back to two or three pages after a bit.
Here I am out of paper again and only up to Sept 5 letter.  Oh well, another day coming.
Night, sweetheart, I love you so much and I'm dreaming of you a lot.  Good dreaming too.
Your soldier.
Norm.